It’s no secret that I love Spider-Man. But ever since I saw this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man I have been obsessed with Gwen Stacy’s shoes. I need to own them. Screen accuracy would be ideal, but a) I still haven’t discovered what boots those actually are and b) the costume pieces purchased for the film were available during filming — fashion moves on. But even a like version has proven difficult to find, especially for under $300. The fact that it was Summer (in New England) probably has something to do with that, boots are just now appearing in stores again, so my quest is far from over. I will have Gwen Stacy Shoes.

It’s hard for a guy to win Superhero of the Night at a blacktie event. There are those — like Alan Cummings — who go for it and get rewarded for their weirdness (though note that I labelled him a villain). But there’s just not that much play for the boys side. Mostly everybody looks like this:

Now before you go pointing out my Spidey-bias (note: I am totally biased) Andrew didn’t win just because he happens to play a superhero. Wolverine and Cyclops were also there! And NPH did a super-swell job as host. But Andrew gets the title for moments like this:

Recently I was in an airport, waiting to board, and wearing a t-shirt that mimics Spider-Man’s costume. The shirt got a lot of compliments from both friends and strangers and this one chatty (or bored) passenger also waiting to board asked “Why Spider-Man?”. I’m not very good at small talk and the question caught me off-guard so I didn’t have a clever answer; all I could do was tell the truth.

“Because he’s a little guy who does the right thing because it’s the right thing,” I explained. “I really believe in his ‘with great power comes great responsibility schtick’ and it’s my opinion that we all have great power so we all have the responsibility to do good in the world.”

Chatty Guy was somewhat taken aback by this. I’m sure he expected a less earnest and more ‘Spider-powers are cool’ answer. But his follow up was “So…we should all wear Spider-Man shirts?” so I think he appreciated it. We moved on to discussing Captain America ice cream and the stereotype (that I was totally willing to play along with) that over-earnest superfans like myself must be geniuses.

All of which is to say: I have a lot of feelings for and about Spider-Man. And these two…

Here’s Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Of One Direction, the latest boy band craze. I haven’t actually ever heard One Direction but I’m pretty sure that both “boy band” and “craze” disqualify them from the hipster scene. So does that mean bow ties are ACTUALLY cool (aka “mainstream”) and therefore also disqualified? How will mainstreamers be able to identify hipsters if the mainstreamers are the ones wearing the bow ties and suspenders?! I am so confused!

Guys, I’m so excited for this movie. I was not at first. In my eyes Spider-Man 2 is perfect and Spider-Man 3 is best forgotten (to avoid RAGE) and basically, I was over Spidey’s origin story and frankly, tired of the Hollywood/American idealization of youth and the rush to make movies just to keep making money and tie-in toys for McDonalds that are never marketed to girls despite the fact that Spider-Man is the favourite hero of all the females in my house.